diff --git a/profile/profile.py b/profile/profile.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc7c4c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/profile/profile.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+from __future__ import division, print_function
+import cProfile, sys, imp, os, pstats
+autojump = imp.load_source('autojump', 'autojump')
+
+"""Profile the total time taken for autojump to generate completions as a
+function of pattern length. This file must be run from the project root."""
+
+if os.path.exists('./profile/autojump_py'):
+    autojump.CONFIG_DIR = './profile'
+
+if len(sys.argv) > 1:
+    outfile = open(sys.argv[1], 'w')
+else:
+    outfile = open('profile_results', 'w')
+outfile.write('Pattern length\tTime taken/s\n')
+
+# For maximum running time, we don't want to match any files.
+test_search = '#' * 10
+for i in range(0, 10):
+    autojump.argv = ['', '--completion', test_search[:i+1]]
+    cProfile.run('autojump.shell_utility()', 'shellprof')
+    p = pstats.Stats('shellprof')
+    outfile.write("%s\t%s\n"% (i + 1, p.total_tt))
+p.sort_stats('time')
+p.print_stats(10)
+